World Council of Churches encourages business divestment from Israel

The World Council of Churches (WCC), the main global body uniting non-Catholic Christians, has encouraged members to sell off investments in companies profiting from Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories. Meeting in Geneva, the Council's Central Committee praised the Presbyterian Church (USA) for examining the possibility of divestment in Israel similar to the financial boycott it used against the apartheid regime in South Africa two decades ago. The Presbyterian threat, which echoes divestment debates at some US universities, has set off a wave of dissent in the church and angered American Jewish leaders. But the WCC Central Committee, in a document approved at a week-long meeting that ended on Tuesday, highlighted the divestment push and encouraged other member churches to consider doing the same. "This action is commendable in both method and manner, uses criteria rooted in faith and calls members to do the 'things that make for peace'," it declared, quoting St Luke's Gospel. "Economic pressure, appropriately and openly applied, is one such means of action."